Currently, there's a big one-time popup when you start the tutorials that explains about law and chaos mode.
There's also a per-realm popup that always asks you how you want to play your realm battles.
I would dearly love to use Mazy's awesome work as a new one-time popup for the first time you enter multiplayer (and land on the duels screen), but I think I'll have to re-use the one from tutorials.

If both you and an opponent do tick both law and chaos mode for duels (etc), you'll get a random game-type (this is currently the case).

CGR wrote:Currently, there's a big one-time popup when you start the tutorials that explains about law and chaos mode.

if this is already there then it probably isn't doing the job. My view is, an ideal scenario would be for the player to choose Law or Chaos Mode as they enter Multiplayer before being able to do anything else, similar to the box that comes up when start a realm. But, a modal box that reminds players of the two types of game modes, yeah i guess that could work?

Big thanks though CGR for reading and coming up with a possible solution.

..as you can see the law mode option is always situated on the left and pre-ticked (as 'option 1', chaos mode being 'option 2'), the suggestion being 'Do you want to the play as normal (law)?, Or do you want to play the alternative way (chaos)?'.

Looking at this purely from a game design perspective.. the alternative, somewhat broken, version of the game is the one being promoted and framed as the definitive way to play.

..This is problematic because this means that it was made the default mode based purely on the fact that it was the mode which was least likely to induce rage, rather than because it played well..

..once an entry level player becomes acclimatized to the default mode (a mode with game breaking mechanics), what reason would they have for playing Chaos? especially if they see chaos mode as some kind of unnecessarily 'hard mode' for multiplayer (which is kinda how the choices are framed).

The influx of PP backers wont necessarily be aware of the reasons behind the implementation of law mode, therefore they will also assume that law mode is Chaos.

Mazy wrote:This is the screen you get at the start of every new realm.. https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 0634DC37F/ ..no matter how many times you've run realms in chaos mode it doesn't remember your preference and reverts back to the default mode (law) every time.

..as you can see the law mode option is always situated on the left and pre-ticked (as 'option 1', chaos mode being 'option 2'), the suggestion being 'Do you want to the play as normal (law)?, Or do you want to play the alternative way (chaos)?'.

Looking at this purely from a game design perspective.. the alternative, somewhat broken, version of the game is the one being promoted and framed as the definitive way to play.

..This is problematic because this means that it was made the default mode based purely on the fact that it was the mode which was least likely to induce rage, rather than because it played well..

..once an entry level player becomes acclimatized to the default mode (a mode with game breaking mechanics), what reason would they have for playing Chaos? especially if they see chaos mode as some kind of unnecessarily 'hard mode' for multiplayer (which is kinda how the choices are framed).

The influx of PP backers wont necessarily be aware of the reasons behind the implementation of law mode, therefore they will also assume that law mode is Chaos.

As well as the inclusion of that prompt in the muliplayer/online menu, what i'd include is:
1) a sub text, explaining the context in which players of the community play the modes.
(ex.
-Law: For newer players who aren't as comfortable with law, and inclined to play realms mode.
-Chaos: Ideal for competitive play. The original game system, which players usually tend to gravitate towards as they become familiar with the game mechanics.

This is important as it plants the seed in the player's mind that they can interchange the modes, based on the consensus of the community (which is either really polarized or tends to fall into this space of law: new players + realms, and chaos: experienced players + league play)

My wording is probably off, perhaps my generalized observations, but something to this effect could really help in curbing the "Law mode, is this it?" or the "Chaos?law?league?duel?Chaosleague? Auguhg!"

2) a "do not show this message again tick box"
This will keep the game system differences fresh in the player's mind until they are ready to tick that box. I tend to find these handy, when first getting into a game as it reinforces the different options in my head.

CGR wrote:Currently, there's a big one-time popup when you start the tutorials that explains about law and chaos mode.

This isn't enough. In reality, a preponderance of players will not ever look at the tutorial. Moreover, there is no clear explanation on how to navigate the layers of the GUI necessary to turn off Law Mode as the default.

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If the question is about keeping a potential new wave of upcoming players, the law vs chaos debate is not going to be a major factor. That "calculated outcomes vs probabilities" blurb means nothing to a new player who still doesn't have a sense what the game is. What does matter is having a good, friendly, fun, intuitive tutorial. This game, sadly, does not have one.

yovargas wrote:If the question is about keeping a potential new wave of upcoming players, the law vs chaos debate is not going to be a major factor. That "calculated outcomes vs probabilities" blurb means nothing to a new player who still doesn't have a sense what the game is. What does matter is having a good, friendly, fun, intuitive tutorial. This game, sadly, does not have one.

You're right about the tutorial too, but changing that, I think, would be a lot more work than just making the different game play options stand out more.

It's all about first impressions though, I can see players coming along, seeing Law Mode, and not really seeing anything different within that system to a multitude of other games that are available, it's also not a great implementation of a HP system, and to that end I can imagine a large proportion of them not sticking around.

With Chaos Mode, it is by nature different to the majority of competing games, it's more complex, and while it's not everyone's cup of tea it's a definite hook for those who understand how to play the numbers within that system. I think the system maybe needs explaining more, and that could be done via the tutorials, not just giving the mechanics on how to play, but also sharing some of the deeper strategies that players can make use of.